12:26 pm - One last political postThe numbers I have for the electoral vote count are 364-163 which sounds dangerously close to 'landslide'. Certainly compared to Bush v. Kerry (286-251). At the time, I remember people complaining about the electoral vote counts and comparing the popular vote count. The popular vote count was 62,040,610 to 59,028,444 which sounds pretty darn close. I remember Condi Rice saying that this was a mandate and that more people had voted for Bush than any other president in history. In general, Republicans were happy and celebratory. Democrats were crestfallen and the usual tripe about moving to Canada was tossed around.

Someone else mentioned to me that the reverse is true as well. More people voted against him than any other president in history. By and large, people felt 2k4 had been stolen like 2k was stolen.

This is a good sample of something I heard after Obama won:We showed last night that the partisanship that might have worked for Dubya has no place on the national level.

It's liberating and wonderful to hear and it's exactly dead wrong. The popular vote totals were 64,336,982 to 56,683,477. How do you expect to say that partisanship is gone when this election went against the will of 46% of the people?

Republicans of 2k8 -- you feel the way Democrats felt in 2k4.Democrats of 2k8 -- you feel the way Republicans felt in 2k4.

Get a hold of yourself people. Nothing's changed yet. All that's changed is that the first president of partial African-American descent was elected. Our country is still deeply divided and partisan. The only difference is that most of my flist is on the winning side this time.

Comments:

I agree; this isn't about partisanship being gone. But this is about a new President who pledges to (and who I believe will try to) work toward cooperation and unity instead of division. I'm happy because I think he is a great candidate, and because, I'll admit it, I think this crushing a defeat may be the wake-up call the Republican Party needs to start addressing the extremely vocal minority in their party who have been plying the political seas of late. I may be wrong, but I am, not to be too much of an Obamamaniac, hopeful.

This isn't a crushing defeat any more than 2k4 was a crushing defeat. It's a difference of a mere 4% of those who voted. If 1.5 million people had decided McCain rather than Obama, McCain would have won. That's the population of Phoenix, AZ. That's less than 1/5 the population of New York City.

This isn't a wakeup call to anyone more than losing the rebellion was a wakeup call to Mal. The Browncoats here aren't going to file into the Alliance.

This is what I get for trying to be rhetorical at work. Bad phrasing on my part.

The crushing part was the full pendulum swing--Democrat in the White House, Democratic majorities in Congress--and the fact that things ended for the McCain campaign so early in the night, which has to be demoralizing. I think it will make the party reflect a lot to have seen that unilateral a loss. The popular vote was close, and I think that's good, in the end--I am hoping that Obama can in fact lead us toward unity instead of dividing us, and I think that if he had crushed McCain in the popular vote that could've caused a serious problem.

And to address the Firefly metaphor--losing the rebellion was a wakeup call to Mal, in a sense; it just woke him up to bitterness and depression, which I am very much hoping we can find a way to avoid.